Translated material
Google's claim to the FAS is rejected
The Moscow Arbitration Court rejected Google’s lawsuit against the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) with a request to cancel the decision and order of the FAS, adopted on the complaint of Yandex in September last year.
The FAS demanded from the American Internet giant until November 18 (later the term was extended until December 18 at the request of the company) 2015 to eliminate the violation of the law “On Protection of Competition”-“untie” the Google Play app store from other services, including the search. In particular, Google should exclude restrictions on the installation of applications and services of other developers from agreements with vendors. Existing users of Android devices should be notified of the possibility of deactivation of pre-installed Google applications, a change in the search engine in the Google Chrome browser, installation of a different search widget, as well as a change in the location of the icons.
The court session was held last week in closed mode. The case against Google was initiated in March 2015 on the complaint of Yandex. The Russian company accused Google of non -competitive behavior: according to Yandex, Google forces manufacturers of mobile devices under the control of its Android operating system to refuse to prescribe Google products, including Yandex. This was indirectly confirmed by the fact that in 2014 three manufacturers of Android-fones-Fly, Explay and Prestigio at once-almost simultaneously refused to install Yandex services. In October 2015, the FAS recognized the accusation fair-it considered that Google abused the dominant position in the market, and ordered the American company to correct the violation: renewing agreements with manufacturers of Android devices.
In December, Google appealed the decision of the FAS in the Moscow Arbitration Court. The head of the FAS Igor Artemyev said that Google’s fine will most likely amount to 7% of the turnover for 2014, and a year or more can be disputed for the dispute, so that the process of eliminating the violation and payment of the fine can be delayed until 2017. However, later the FAS head did not rule out a settlement with Google.
Google will study the decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court in a suit to the FAS in order to determine its further steps.
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